{excerpts}For the first time in more than 35 years, the U.S. military has met all of its annual recruiting goals, as hundreds of thousands of young people have enlisted despite the near-certainty that they will go to war.

The Pentagon, which made the announcement Tuesday, said the economic downturn and rising joblessness, as well as bonuses and other factors, had led more qualified youths to enlist.

The military has not seen such across-the-board successes since the all-volunteer force was established in 1973, after Congress ended the draft following the Vietnam War. In recent years, the military has often fallen short of some of its recruiting targets. The Army, in particular, has struggled to fill its ranks, admitting more high school dropouts, overweight youths and even felons.

Yet during the current budget year, which ended Sept. 30, recruiters met their targets in both numbers and quality for all components of active-duty and reserve forces.

"We delivered beyond anything the framers of the all-volunteer force would have anticipated," Bill Carr, deputy undersecretary of defense for military personnel policy, said at a Pentagon news conference.

As lengthy, multiple combat tours place U.S. forces under enormous stress, the willingness of young people to enlist has surprised even military leaders, experts said.

The quality of recruits also improved, with about 95 percent reporting that they had received high school diplomas; last year, 83 percent of the Army's active-duty recruits had diplomas, short of the goal of 90 percent. The active-duty Army this year admitted only 1.5 percent of recruits who scored in the lowest acceptable category on the standard qualification test; in recent years, that figure had reached nearly 4 percent.

Historically, there has been a strong correlation between rising unemployment and increases in "high quality" enlistments, according to Curt Gilroy, the Pentagon's director of accession policy.

Carr said the Defense Department spent about $10,000 on advertising, marketing, recruiters and other budget items per recruit, with the Army spending more than double that, at $22,000.

"The unemployment . . . left us with more dollars per recruit than proved to be minimally necessary," he said.

Carr also credited hefty enlistment bonuses for the military's success, saying 40 percent of recruits received an average bonus of $14,000, compared with $12,000 on average in 2008. The size of the bonus varied by service, with the Army, which has the toughest mission, offering more.

Given the success this year, the Pentagon is cutting its $5 billion recruiting budget by 11 percent for next year. {more}

To kick-off a weeklong list of nationwide events aimed at educating the public about recent reports that one in three women in the military are raped, Veterans for Peace, the sponsor of this campaign, along with activists from local New York city area groups descended upon the Times Square Recruiting Station in Manhattan. A press conference was conducted by retired US Army Col. Ann Wright, where media attention on this topic was quite impressive. The cameras and reporters swarmed Col. Wright as she began to make her statements. She said, "It is a responsibility of us as veterans to warn young women that according to Veterans Administration studies, one in three women are sexually assaulted or raped while they are in the military."

VFP chapters will have actions during the entire week from October 13th to the 16th at Armed Forces recruiting stations around the Country to demand that military recruiters alert women who are thinking about joining the military about the high possibility they will be raped while in the controlled, highly disciplined military environment. Sexual assault and rape of women and men in the US military increased so dramatically during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that in 2005 then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld formed a task force on sexual assault; however, the task force did not meet until 2008. Nearly one-third of a nationwide sample of women veterans who sought health care through the Veterans Administration said they experience rape or attempted rape during their service. Of that group, 37 percent said they were raped multiple times and 14 percent reported they were gang-raped. The Department of Defense has been reluctant to release statistics on sexual assault of men in the military, but anecdotal evidence indicates that the statistics are alarmingly high. Over the past 10 years, more than 700 US Army Recruiters have been accused of sexual misconduct or rape. Sixty years of US military studies and task forces since women began entering the military in larger numbers have not lessened the incidents of assault and rape. {more - Elaine Brower}

I know a former army recruiter who worked in Detroit at the beginning of the Iraq War. They were having a hard time getting bodies and he freely admitted working with the court system to remove criminal records if the kids joined up. It looks like that is not needed as much anymore.

So stay in school kids, keep those criminal activities to a minimum and when the recruiters come calling for possibly the only job you can get besides flipping big macs...you'll be ready.

You of course realize this is playful needling (with a sardonic quality probably under-appreciated by most, to put it politely); however, I will tell you that after three plus years of decrying and trying to end empire, for lack of a better term, I'm exhausted in so many ways. Not only did I miss out on valuable experiences, I guess, but the unending juggernaut of militarism has sapped my soul.

I'm only speaking for myself, but around here it hurts to walk around and find most people don't care about the lies that led to the occupations and mass murder of foreign peoples in faraway lands for oil empire, and Israel.

I know I'm supposed to be patient and wait, the tide is turning, etc, etc, but I'm not satisfied with that anymore because I've heard that for years now and nothing has really changed. The war machine rolls on and the killing continues even as I type this.

I guess all I am trying to say is that EVERY MINUTE, EVERY SECOND the slaughter of innocents (I don't care what they call 'em) continues is an affront to my senses. I'm tired of being told to wait, etc, I just want it to stop now, right now! Of course, it is getting worse.

Well, I guess that long wind is out and I'll let you get back to your latest tasks. Peace and thx....

Greg, I'm using stat counter and can try to match up the times of the comments with the times someone was here online but it's inexact and not really worth the effort. If you know of a better way, let me know.

NTS, I have a grandson only 2 1/2 years away from the possibility of what you speak. I'm trying not to let that happen.

Here's a comment to a young lady who reports weekly from Iraq to a local site. http://tinyurl.com/yf6ta74

"Jennifer,

I do not think I have had the chance to meet you in person as of yet. My son is a friend of your neice, Etta. Every night when he prays he mentions you personally (Please be with Etta's Aunt G in Irag and all her soldier friends). I would love to get with you when you return so he can meet you personally, he is only 7 but dreams of being in the army someday. We keep up with you on here each week. Thank you for the updates and for giving us our many freedoms, most of all thank you for giving my son a dream to reach for when he is older."

So it's not wars we're fighting, just an authorization to use military force.

The psyops about sending more kids to die in Afghanistan is reaching critical mass.

Just don't expect to win, because it's not about winning, just fighting and fighting and....

BTW, since that AUMF was to go after those who attacked on 9/11, what legal reasoning is Congress and Obama using to amp up the fight and go after the Taliban, who had NOTHING to do with 9/11, but I imagine we should start hearing some manufactured stories about how the Taliban were mobbed up with Bin Laden and blah, blah, blah.,

hmm mental ilness at its most sublime. The Police and Military despise the civilians. Pooh poohIt works both ways... Tax gouged civilians despise out of controlbig brother apparatus. I smell...hmmm yes it is, sulphur.Wait! I know that smell! Its, its,,,Kolnidrium. Kn. The only element known to have super dooper powers. Sampson had high levels of Kolnidrium in his blood. Superman loves the stuff. So does the Pentagon. Jericho's trumpet was made of Kolnidrium.

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